Suspension-No, Disbarment-Yes

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Geneva Forrester should be disbarred. Forrester had been suspended earlier by the court for knowingly misrepresenting facts about an allegation of child abuse.

Forrester then hired a recent law school graduate to handle cases that she had not given to other attorneys, but it was found that instead of being supervised as a non-lawyer, she was in fact supervising this associate and therefore practicing law.

A bar referee recommended an additional year suspension for her willfull violaton, but the Florida Supreme Court did not agree. “Upon review, we find that the recommendation of a one-year suspension lacks a reasonable basis in case law or the standards and conclude that Forrester should be disbarred. A survey of cases where an attorney has been held in contempt for practicing law while either suspended, disbarred, or permitted to resign reveals that disbarment is most often the chosen sanction.”